Qualia Sues Rival Settlor For 'Stolen' Trade Secrets

Closing software provider Qualia has filed a lawsuit against rival firm Settlor accusing a former employee of stealing highly valuable trade secrets to give Settlor an unfair competitive advantage against the firm.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday 16 January, accuses Qualia's former Senior Manager of Product, Krista Myers—who worked at Qualia's ResWare segment and is now a Product Manager at Settlor—of copying no fewer than 900 confidential files before resigning her role, then uploading them to Settlor's systems to "unfairly compete against Qualia."

Qualia says that it has proof that Myers stole intellectual property and trade secrets and, upon being advised to disclose and return the data, swiftly deleted everything in collaboration with Settlor.

The lawsuit goes on to describe Myers' actions as "intentionally and willfully undertaken as part of a larger plan, to quickly build a competing product by cutting corners and illegally using stolen Qualia data to do it."

Qualia seeks damages and injunctive relief, and it is demanding a jury trial against two defendants: Settlor and Myers for misappropriation of trade secrets, Myers for further breaches of contract, and Settlor for intentional interference with a contract.

Qualia offers a suite of cloud-based title, escrow, and eClosing products for "a unified digital closing platform to deliver simple and secure buying, selling, and borrowing experiences" designed for real estate companies. Settlor, unsurprisingly given the nature of this story, offers a similar suite of products.

Qualia was founded in 2015, while Settlor launched in 2021.